Latest / The Price of Music / PPL posts highest ever annual revenues, Harry Kane invests in ticketing firm

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PPL posts highest ever annual revenues, Harry Kane invests in ticketing firm · The Price of Music

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  McDonald's for a limited time. A Minecraft movie only in
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  theaters. Hello and welcome to The Price
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  of Music, the show that looks at the money behind the music
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  industry with me, Steve Lamack and Music Allies head of insight
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  Stuart Dredge. How are you Stuart Do?
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  You know, I'm good. And the main reason for that is
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  April Fools Day. And I didn't fall for an April
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  Fools when I was writing my news bulletin this morning because
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  every year, every year I'm like, God, what if I write a story out
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  based on someone? So I didn't fall for any.
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  And I did my own for musical eye that people have liked.
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  So, oh really, do you want to? Can we, can you share it with
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  now? Now it's out in the world
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  already or is that bad out? I don't know.
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  No, I think by the time people hear this, it'll be the next
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  day. No, it was just about Elon Musk
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  by music catalogues and it, which is not funny in itself,
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  but there were just some lines in it about like, band bands on
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  a label he bought and things. So yeah, it was like a little
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  full of Easter eggs and then links to Rick Astley's Never
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  going to Give You Up as well. And, and the fun thing is you
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  can sort of see on our our back end system, we sent our
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  newsletter out. You can see how many clicks
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  links have got, right. So I sort of was there going
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  right, 37 people have clicked on the Rick Astley link, possibly
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  some of them knowing it's an April Fool and wanting to see
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  what I've linked to, but hopefully others were like, wow,
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  Ellen must buying. Oh man, Rick rolled.
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  Just before we get to this week's news, I've got a good
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  fact for you that I came across by accident last week.
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  See if see if you can work this one out. 2007 was the peak of
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  which format for sales of music? And how much did that format
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  make for the American record industry?
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  2007 the absolute peak. OK, so it's not was it vinyl?
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  Could be vinyl. Is it going to be something
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  esoteric like Minidisc? Or you see, I mean, I would
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  probably guess minidisc. It's ringtones.
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  Ringtones. In inflation adjusted figures,
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  the Recording Industry Association of America said that
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  ringtones were worth $1.6 billion in 2007.
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  Wow, how about that? Ringtones, by the way, the last
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  time anyone recorded how much they were making for the
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  American record industry, ringtones were worth £10
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  million. Do.
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  You do, you know that used to be my job covering that side of the
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  industry like ringtones and it was in the days before streaming
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  it was ringtones and it was this weird thing where like people
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  were, people were not buying music and the money was going
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  down but people were spending £3 yes on.
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  A ringtone. Yeah.
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  It was a. Very, very strange.
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  Period. Has a music former ever had such
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  a meteoric rise and fall? And it's weirdly I was, that's
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  when I started thinking about, well, I suppose mini disc, but
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  mini disc probably never got to never gross that amount of money
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  for the industry. Would it have done?
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  I don't think so. No, I used to.
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  I used to record my interviews on a mini disc recorder like
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  back in the day and I had like one hour.
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  I think I had one album for it. I can't remember what that album
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  was, but I know I had one album that I would listen to on the
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  plane when going to do interviews somewhere on a trip.
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  Yeah, they never quite took. Off I think I've still got 2
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  albums on Minidisc, Which one's by Muse and the other is an Ash
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  album? I can't remember which one it
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  is. Anyway, that's enough history
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  Ed. What are this week's big news
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  stories and big numbers actually, shall we start with?
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  We'll start with a big name this week.
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  Ed Sheeran and a group of prominent British musicians have
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  called for £250 million of extra investment in music education.
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  Yeah, so this is something like the, the, the story here is Ed
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  Sheeran asking for money for music education.
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  But the back story to it is he's got this foundation he set out,
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  which I think we might have mentioned before.
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  The Ed Sheeran Foundation, well named, does what it doesn't say
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  and it he, it just focuses on music education in the UK.
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  So it's a 'cause that is close to his heart and he's actually
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  putting some money into it already.
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  And yeah, he wrote to Sir Keir Starmer and it's a good list of
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  names if you're trying to persuade politicians.
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  It's Annie Lennox, Central Sea, Coldplay, Dave, Fred again,
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  Harry Styles, Stormzy, like a mixture of like sort of very
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  famous established artists and then the cutting edge people who
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  are who are doing really well from Britain's exports today.
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  And yeah, basically pointing to what we've talked about in the
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  past, which is that UK artists weren't weren't so high in the
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  the end of year charts last year in the UK.
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  Lots of American artists were instead and saying, yeah, as an
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  industry we'd bring in £7.6 billion to the UK economy, but
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  the next generation is not there to take the reins.
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  And so they've got this list of, of wish lists really.
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  They want £250 million music education package to repair.
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  And the quote here is decades of dismantling music.
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  So it's very much looking at like how music in schools has
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  kind of gone, do it downhill in terms of investment.
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  There were more funding train, more teachers, a new fund to
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  support youth music projects, more music apprenticeships and a
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  more diverse music curriculum in schools.
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  And they want the music industry to be involved in that as well.
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  So which I, I sort of, I took that as like, right, not just
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  Beethoven and like like Lloyd Webber, because that was what I
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  did in music and school. It was all either classical
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  music or it was Joseph in his technical dreamcoat, which you
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  don't want to hear as as a class of 30 boys, most of whom aren't
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  singers singing Joseph. It puts you off a life.
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  So it's all good stuff and it all sounds very logical, like
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  all this money invested would would come back to you in terms
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  of Future Music exports and music business stuff.
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  It's it's kind of laying the groundwork.
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  But with the knowledge that and we'll get onto this sort of Lex
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  story, I think the knowledge that there's a lot of pressure
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  on spending and where money is going at the moment and it's
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  more likely to go into increasing defence and it isn't
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  to going going to music. So.
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  I think, I mean, I think the other thing here is that as well
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  as calling on governments, wouldn't it be an idea if some
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  of the musicians actually called on their own industry?
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  Because what you're saying there rings true with a meeting I was
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  in the other day where people were asking record labels and
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  you know, other other big companies around music.
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  So in the live industry, wherever being a publishers
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  record label, if you don't invest in the next generation,
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  whereas the next generation of young talented music industry
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  execs going to come from. So there was a call there for
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  increasing the amount of apprenticeships available or,
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  you know, job opportunities, which would open things up for,
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  you know, anyone really. And not just people who can, you
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  know, afford to intern for six months to get a job.
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  But actually, you know, paying, paying money to educate and
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  nurture new talent in the music industry.
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  Surely some of that falls at the industry's own door, doesn't it?
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  You would think so, yeah. And, and I think it's it's two
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  things, isn't it? Like what one thing is the where
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  are we going to get the next stars from?
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  And that's what this letter is talking about.
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  You know, if we're not going to have the next edge here and if
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  you don't invest, but it's also the whole society.
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  Stuff like music, having access to music is a good thing.
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  And and people saying, well, this can help in all kinds of
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  problems that we have that we talk about.
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  I mean, like everyone's bang on about adolescence this week.
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  I don't know if you followed that debate about the Netflix
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  show and it's kind of. Not, not as closely as as as as
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  some you have. Everyone with teenage you have
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  to. You.
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  Have one with teenage poisoning. Oh, sorry, I was going to say
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  you have to. You have to remember that I was
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  at the 6th Music Festival for part of last week and then
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  straight on to Butlins in Skegness, so I'm as out of the
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  loop as it's possible to be. OK, so adolescence is like a
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  show and it's about it's it's kind of playing into this debate
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  about young boys and the manosphere and being radicalised
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  online. And it's got, if you're a parent
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  of teenage boys, you know about this show and you're currently
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  terrified because it's it's kind of the the what, what's the
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  worst that could happen? But that's shining this new
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  light on kind of some of those issues in society about
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  teenagers and what do they what they're doing and how are they
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  in the right path? So all of this is good.
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  Like it all makes perfect sense. But like you say, it maybe isn't
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  going to come from government in terms of extra money.
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  There's stuff they can do, but maybe it's time for the industry
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  to go. Well, this is worth us investing
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  in. And I think we'll probably get
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  letters now from the industry saying here's how we are already
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  investing in music education because there is stuff they're
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  doing. But yeah, maybe this, I mean
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  £200 million, it's not, you know, I say it's not much in a
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  scheme of things, like in a scheme of general budgets and
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  finance, it is small isn't it, in terms of that could make a
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  meaningful difference, but isn't, it's not a lot of
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  compared to spending billions on X or Y in government.
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  But yeah, maybe it's interesting job.
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  Talking of governments, various music industry bodies are very
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  cross with the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves
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  after last week and the the financial spring, the spring
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  financial statements. Who?
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  Who is cross? Why are they cross?
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  Everyone is poor Rachel Reeves. Everyone seems to be crossed at
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  her nowadays, don't they? Yeah.
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  So the Springsteen, which I it was new to me, but it's like a
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  mini budget, but you're not allowed to call it a budget, I
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  think. Is that is that correct?
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  That's. About the size of it, I think,
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  yeah. And the headlines are all about
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  defence spending increasing and big cuts to the welfare budget
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  and that was all the coverage. But I think what wasn't in the
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  speech was any money for music education or any of the stuff
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  for grassroots venues that the MBT has been looking for.
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  So a lot of the stuff that music industry has asked for in recent
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  months and was hoping might happen didn't.
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  And so yeah. Who's so.
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  So who's criticising it? AIM.
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  So G Davy is the CEO of AIM, the independence body.
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  She said, well, there's stuff in there that's like employment
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  schemes and living wage increases, but they won't work
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  if music businesses are unable to trade.
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  So she was saying, look, we need we need support to kind of keep
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  going. The national.
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  Is it the night time Industries Association?
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  Michael Kill. You must know them him and them
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  he he he went in for the kill at aptly with his name.
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  He said it was a reckless dereliction of duty that
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  blatantly disregards the night time economy's desperate need
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  for support. So the gist of the criticism was
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  this is a really critical point for grassroots music.
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  And I think that's something now is pleuent about both music
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  education and youth music projects, but also like we do at
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  the independent venues and the kind of that kind of structure.
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  And they wouldn't take much to help.
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  But right now, I mean, stop me if I get too political.
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  But I guess there seems to be two priorities for the
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  government. 1 is like they want to, they need to balance the
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  books without putting taxes up because they promised they
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  wouldn't put this and that tax up.
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  So they've got to balance the books and there's not much
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  money. Everyone is being told no more.
• 11:38
  And that's before this possible trade war kicks off tomorrow.
• 11:41
  So President Trump is apparently going to announce loads of
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  tariffs. And this could kind of play
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  merry havoc with economies around the world.
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  So this is not a priority really.
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  It's the stuff that was announced, the welfare cuts and
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  the defence stuff is, is the big, the big priorities right
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  now for the government. And So what the music industry
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  has been asking for isn't being done.
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  And I think this comes back to what you said before that maybe
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  it does throw the ball back to the music industry.
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  And and it's it's Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Amazon
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  Universal, one of Sony Music. Maybe they do need to step up
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  because the government is doing some stuff like we've talked,
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  haven't we, about the, the whole idea of a grass roots ticketing
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  levy, levy, levy. How do you say levy, levy, levy,
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  levy. I like, like the government is
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  doing stuff there, isn't it? It's getting everyone, everyone
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  saying you need to do this. And if don't, we'll make like it
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  is. It is doing some stuff for
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  music. It's not completely
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  uninterested, but in terms of more money, it feels like it's a
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  no for now. And so maybe that is the
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  industry's job to kind of step up.
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  OK, Apple Music has enabled subscribers to build and mix
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  sets directly from the platform's catalog of over 100
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  million songs. This is something which you've
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  been hoping for for for a while now.
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  Is this actually the chance to be able to to to do some mixing
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  of sorts? To build a playlist where you
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  can turn it into a ADJ set. Yeah, it's, it's the day for
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  bedroom DJs across the nation and across the world, in fact,
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  which is kind of a big thing, I think.
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  Like I, I saw, oh, God, I can't remember the exact stats.
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  I saw a while back some stats about how much DJ equipment and
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  software is bought not by professional DJs.
• 13:29
  It's by people who are doing it at home or doing it at the most
• 13:32
  for friends parties. And that's been a huge growth,
• 13:34
  hasn't it? Like people have kind of been
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  going, Yeah, I am, I've hit my midlife crisis and I'm going to
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  be a DJ in my, in my bedroom, which I, I could, I could see
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  appealing. So yeah, this is so it's Apple
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  Music. It's it's partnerships between
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  Apple Music and a bunch of DJ hardware and software companies.
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  So like Serato and Algorithm and Newmark.
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  And so a mixture of kind of professional DJ kit people and
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  then the stuff that you would get if you were a kind of a home
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  DJ. And yeah, it means if you're a
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  subscriber to Apple Music, you can DJ using those services with
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  its catalog of music. So instead of sticking an entire
• 14:05
  collection on USB stick, which I guess is, is that the nowadays
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  something you know more than me? What what?
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  What do DJs take now? It might be a box of vinyl, but
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  it's more often AUSB stick. Isn't it?
• 14:16
  It depends, yeah. It really depends on what sort
• 14:18
  of DJ you are. I think a lot of people DJ off
• 14:22
  laptops now, don't they? And memory sticks.
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  And that's easy or, or you have the, you have two CDJS which you
• 14:30
  put memory sticks into. You can do it that way.
• 14:32
  Or as I, I reverted to on Saturday, CDRS just burn some
• 14:39
  CDs, work out what you're going to play, burn the CDs, play the
• 14:43
  CDs. But yeah, I do sometimes use
• 14:47
  memory sticks. I haven't got as far as the
• 14:49
  laptop yet. Because obviously there's the
• 14:51
  benefit with the laptop is, you know, you've got so much
• 14:55
  software these days which can help you, you know, beat match
• 14:58
  and do all the, you know, and put reverb on an echo and all
• 15:01
  sorts of, you know, you can loop stuff instantly.
• 15:04
  So it depends. I think it depends partly how
• 15:07
  good you are part, then partly how up to date you are and
• 15:11
  partly how professional that you are.
• 15:13
  Yeah, fair enough. I once did I once a demo of of
• 15:16
  tractor had a new DJ app for iPad and these there were lovely
• 15:20
  people, really nice. And it soon became clear to them
• 15:23
  they were they wanted to demo it to me by me doing it.
• 15:25
  And they quickly realised I couldn't do anything.
• 15:28
  I couldn't beat match or anything.
• 15:29
  And they were a bit like they were very polite.
• 15:31
  But but yeah, so this is this is kind of, I think it's a good
• 15:34
  thing, but, and it's part of Apple Music because we're doing
• 15:37
  a lot more with with electronic music and DJ mixes.
• 15:39
  So they actually a few years ago, they started putting more
• 15:42
  DJ mixes on Apple Music. And they also had some
• 15:44
  technology to make sure that every song that was in those
• 15:47
  mixes got paid royalties, which was one of the things that in
• 15:50
  the past stopped there being DJ mixes and streaming services
• 15:53
  because they were like, well, how do we pay royalties?
• 15:55
  We can't realize if I So they've been they've been leading into
• 15:57
  this more and there's kind of a fun shithouse to reangle.
• 16:02
  I'd like to describe it as here. So you know, we've talked about
• 16:05
  Spotify planning this super fans tier.
• 16:07
  This is kind of more expensive. And one of the features in that
• 16:10
  is some kind of mixing, remixing, mashing up.
• 16:14
  No one quite knows what, but it's there is some kind of
• 16:16
  mixing feature and it's going to be one thing they think they can
• 16:19
  charge more money for. And now Apple Music has launched
• 16:23
  something possibly similar. We're not sure, but if it is
• 16:26
  similar, it's no extra cost for Apple Music.
• 16:29
  So it's kind of almost shooting Spotify in the in the foot
• 16:32
  before they launched the thing saying we've done a thing and
• 16:34
  this has happened before. So a few years ago, Spotify was
• 16:37
  planning to launch a high res music too with better music
• 16:39
  quality. And then one day Apple went,
• 16:41
  we're adding higher quality across Apple Music and no extra
• 16:44
  cost. And it just completely kind of
• 16:47
  squashed that idea. So in in my head, I'm like, I
• 16:49
  wonder if Apple Music is do it again, whether it's I'm witting
• 16:51
  or not. Are they kind of getting ahead
• 16:53
  of a Spotify thing? But it might be completely
• 16:56
  different. But it is really good.
• 16:57
  I mean, there are some about there who are like, I'd like to
• 17:00
  DJ at home or I'd like to DJ my friends.
• 17:02
  Doing it with a streaming service does remove that whole
• 17:05
  thing of having to build up a collection.
• 17:08
  But yeah, so it's, it's worth, it's trying if you've got that
• 17:10
  kit and if you've got an Apple Music sub.
• 17:13
  What should we do next PPL? Should we do the PPL figures?
• 17:17
  PPL has posted the highest annual revenues in its 90 year
• 17:22
  history. Just for people who are new to
• 17:25
  us and might not know, explain what her or who PPL are and what
• 17:29
  they do and then you can do the figures.
• 17:33
  OK, cool. Yeah, Well, PPL, they collect
• 17:35
  collecting society, they collect public performance royalties and
• 17:37
  broadcast revenues. So it's for recordings, isn't
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  it? And it's a radio for TV for for
• 17:43
  recording music played in gyms and pubs and public spaces and
• 17:47
  also online services. So kind of whereas PRS music
• 17:50
  collects the publishing side of things, PPL collects the
• 17:52
  recording side. And they always very politely
• 17:55
  correct me if I get something wrong.
• 17:57
  So I know they're, I know they're right to me, but that's,
• 17:59
  that's as I understand it. So they're, yeah, collecting
• 18:01
  society for recordings and they collect for labels and artists.
• 18:04
  And yeah, it was £301 million last year, which was up 6% from
• 18:09
  the previous year, a good rise in public performance revenue.
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  So stuff played in public, which had a really tough time in
• 18:16
  COVID, obviously, when everywhere shut down.
• 18:18
  So that's kind of on the up again, good rising into 7% rise
• 18:22
  in the international collection. So that's British artist music
• 18:25
  being played overseas. So that's kind of almost like
• 18:28
  it's not, it doesn't contradict it, but it's a nice positive
• 18:30
  story about music from here internationally when there's
• 18:34
  been a lot of worry about British artists not doing so
• 18:36
  well. And I was trying to, I was, I
• 18:39
  was having a think about like digging a bit deeper into these
• 18:42
  figures. And one thing I thought was was
• 18:44
  that like, how is this pie of money being distributed, how
• 18:47
  it's being sliced up? Because five years ago I went
• 18:52
  back and looked and five years ago PPL collected £271.8 million
• 18:56
  and that went to 104,000 artists and labels.
• 19:00
  So if you did an average, which is not a really useful figure,
• 19:04
  it was about £2613 each. You know, if if you have,
• 19:08
  obviously Ed Sheeran is getting a lot more than that.
• 19:11
  Most people are getting less. But yeah, but then last year, so
• 19:14
  £301 million, which is more, which is good, but that went to
• 19:17
  172,000 people being paid. So that is 68,000 more people
• 19:24
  are getting a slice of that pie. So it's an average of like
• 19:27
  70,750 each. So the one thing you can see
• 19:31
  here, and this is not a problem for PPO, it's it's a sign that
• 19:34
  they're kind of signing people up.
• 19:35
  But there's a lot more people scrabbling for a slice of these
• 19:38
  royalties. And again, although you are Ed
• 19:41
  Sheer, if you're Ed Sheer and you're doing pretty well from
• 19:43
  your stuff being played in pubs, if you're lower down the kind of
• 19:46
  industry pyramid, there's a lot more competition nowadays.
• 19:49
  There's 68,000 more people getting paid from what PPO is
• 19:52
  collecting. But yeah, otherwise good.
• 19:55
  And they're very proud. I think they've had their 90th
• 19:57
  birthday. Was it last year or this year?
• 19:58
  I think it was last year, wasn't it?
• 20:00
  But they had a year of celebrating being 90, which is
• 20:02
  like a, you know, ripe old age. But hitting a record is good
• 20:06
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• 21:10
  Music industry acquisitions, this is something we said would
• 21:14
  happen a lot this year. Well, always it's always been
• 21:17
  going on, but there's, there's going to be even more we
• 21:20
  predicted this year. Here's another one.
• 21:23
  This involves a company called Concord.
• 21:26
  Some people will know buying a company called STEM which I've
• 21:30
  never heard of. Yeah, So she likes me.
• 21:33
  I mean, for Concord, for those, I mean, it's a big, they're
• 21:35
  independent music, aren't they? But they're I always thought
• 21:38
  them as someone who bought catalogues, but they also have
• 21:41
  label side and they work with, I say, I think I was looking at
• 21:43
  their roster actually. It's like indie Go girls, Corn
• 21:46
  Sleater Kinney, but also a bunch of old kind of rock bands and
• 21:50
  like Paul Simon's on there and like lots of it's a mixture of
• 21:53
  real heritage acts. They do still work with, you
• 21:56
  know, current artists. So stem stem is really
• 22:00
  interesting. They're like a they're partly A
• 22:01
  distributor. So they're just one of those
• 22:02
  companies you can put your music onto streaming services with,
• 22:05
  but they've also built tools for artists to track their royalties
• 22:08
  and manage the financial side of their business.
• 22:11
  Oh, that's interesting. Yeah.
• 22:13
  So this kind of sector is called financial tech or like fintech
• 22:15
  is the the abbreviation people use.
• 22:17
  And I've been writing a lot more about companies in that space in
• 22:20
  the last year, like figuring out, calculating royalties,
• 22:24
  analysing things, splitting royalties, all that kind of
• 22:28
  financial process working stuff. It's not like it's, it's not the
• 22:34
  wizziest area of tech that people get.
• 22:37
  People get excited about things like, I don't know, the
• 22:40
  metaverse and blockchain, all this stuff.
• 22:42
  But actually financial tech is probably one of the most
• 22:44
  important things that, you know, it can make me.
• 22:48
  So they're one of those companies in that space.
• 22:51
  And yeah, like for weeks people were saying, oh, Concorde is
• 22:53
  buying STEM, apparently. But it happened.
• 22:55
  And some reports said they paid more than $50 million for it.
• 22:59
  Some said more than $100 million.
• 23:01
  Ninety million was one figure I saw kind of quoted quite
• 23:03
  confident. So it's quite a big acquisition
• 23:08
  and they, yeah, they're going to spin off it's financial tools
• 23:10
  into a separate company. So they'll still carry on.
• 23:14
  It's an example, I suppose the context where it is an example
• 23:16
  of like an independent music company being bought not by a
• 23:19
  major label. And there were rumours that Sony
• 23:23
  and Warner might have been interested in buying STEM and
• 23:25
  they may able to be bidding for it in the process.
• 23:28
  But Concorde and although Concorde is quite a big company,
• 23:30
  it's not a major label. So in a sense we've seen, you
• 23:33
  know, we talked about the worries that independent people
• 23:35
  have about, well, the majors are buying all the interesting
• 23:37
  stuff. This is an example of a big
• 23:39
  independent company buying another independent company.
• 23:42
  And I think some of the quotes for the acquisition were talking
• 23:45
  about this being being strength independent sector.
• 23:48
  You know, it's been quite a good thing for the sector as a whole,
• 23:50
  not just for these companies. Yeah.
• 23:52
  So yeah. All right, a new report from
• 23:56
  SoundCloud has been dishing the data on the next breakthrough
• 24:01
  music scenes. Come on, then.
• 24:03
  What? What are what are they and how,
• 24:06
  how? What have that?
• 24:07
  What have they been? They've just been poking around
• 24:10
  what in the stats and saying whatever.
• 24:14
  Egg punk is the next thing. Exactly that.
• 24:17
  So I mean, like, SoundCloud, it's not the biggest streaming
• 24:19
  service, but it's always been that place where stuff breaks
• 24:21
  through, isn't it? And like, I think their big
• 24:23
  success is like Chance the Rapper, he kind of emerged on
• 24:26
  SoundCloud and Billie Eilish in her early days.
• 24:29
  And Lord, like, their first stuff was released on
• 24:31
  SoundCloud, just put up on SoundCloud.
• 24:33
  And yeah, it's always been this bubbling part of like.
• 24:36
  And the other thing is SoundCloud is that every song is
• 24:38
  tagged. And so you, you, you put A tag
• 24:41
  on the music when you upload it. And so that that gives them a
• 24:43
  huge data to say, oh, wait, this tag of this particular genre is
• 24:46
  suddenly shooting up in popularity.
• 24:48
  So they have a good insight, I remember into one of the
• 24:51
  founders, like like years ago, like a decade ago.
• 24:53
  And he the first thing he said was like, yeah, have you heard
• 24:55
  of witch hop? And I was like, which one?
• 24:58
  He's like witch hop, It's up and coming.
• 25:00
  And also mermaid like so they always had this idea of these
• 25:03
  random genres. So yeah, so it's just it's just
• 25:05
  done a big report on that. And and what it's doing is
• 25:08
  saying, look, we are the place still where these new genres
• 25:10
  flourish. So that's what it's about.
• 25:12
  See, last year apparently plug was big.
• 25:15
  Sorry. Plug.
• 25:18
  Yeah, plug. Plug with plug with 2G's, which
• 25:21
  is like it's a kind of a mixture of trap and jazz and Southern
• 25:24
  hip hop. And then there's also Plug and
• 25:28
  B, which is that with the next bit of R&B.
• 25:30
  Well, since and then thankfully back on the firm ground, British
• 25:34
  rap was really big here in the UK.
• 25:36
  So that's having, that's having a continued moment on
• 25:38
  SoundCloud. But yes, so what's next?
• 25:40
  They they've chose 5 scenes that are next.
• 25:45
  And it sounds like nonsense when you read it out, but so, so
• 25:49
  kaleidoscopic new rap, eclectic new indie, dark evolution of
• 25:56
  trap, transatlantic transatlantic rap connections
• 26:02
  and the best 1, the prismatic world of trance, which is so,
• 26:08
  and this is like, it sounds a bit silly, but this is all these
• 26:10
  are things. So these are scenes more than
• 26:12
  genres. So they're finding more British
• 26:14
  and American rappers collaborating.
• 26:15
  That's something rap. There's there's a whole bunch of
• 26:18
  new young artists making trance music.
• 26:21
  So a lot of this is kind of it's kind of ties into this idea of
• 26:23
  like the so much of the 90s is back in different ways and
• 26:27
  trance is I think it was chance 90s.
• 26:29
  Yeah, yeah. But yeah, the other thing is the
• 26:32
  fastest growing genres on SoundCloud in the UK last year.
• 26:35
  So hip hop was tough, which is maybe not a surprise because
• 26:37
  that's the biggest on streaming. But then rock and metal was the
• 26:40
  second fastest growing genre on SoundCloud here really.
• 26:43
  And then frok and country the third, which I sort of they
• 26:47
  might be from smaller bases. So that's why they're fastest
• 26:49
  growing. But it's kind of interesting
• 26:50
  that that SoundCloud is seeing a bunch of rock and metal bands
• 26:53
  and folk and country artists, which maybe I mean, you'll see
• 26:57
  this more than I do. I think about there are, I mean,
• 26:59
  I've seen some really interesting young bands who are
• 27:02
  kind of icing. Oh wow.
• 27:03
  They're the kind of bands that I thought didn't do well in
• 27:05
  streaming, but they're kind of cutting through.
• 27:08
  So I, I feel like maybe that's happening.
• 27:10
  So, so yeah, but yeah, I think prismatic Trance is my new, my
• 27:14
  new jam I'm going to get, I'm going to go.
• 27:16
  But the good thing is this report and you can find, if you
• 27:18
  search for what's it called SoundCloud music Intelligence
• 27:21
  Report. You can go in and for each of
• 27:23
  these emerging scenes, it gives you a list of tags that have and
• 27:27
  you can then use that to go and find this stuff.
• 27:29
  And it tells you something about the artists coming up.
• 27:31
  So it's a really, if nothing else, it's a really good, if you
• 27:34
  fancy spending an hour going and listening to new stuff breaking
• 27:37
  through on SoundCloud, this report is a really good
• 27:39
  launchpad for that. So OK.
• 27:41
  All right, one last story, which was a late addition to the
• 27:47
  running order. In fact, all I've got written
• 27:50
  down here is Harry Kane. Have you been?
• 27:54
  Are we on the road? Is this, should this be on Price
• 27:57
  of football? Have we got a podcast mixed up?
• 28:01
  What? Why?
• 28:02
  What's Harry Kane done? What could Harry Kane possibly
• 28:06
  have done this week that is music related?
• 28:10
  I think right now the price of football podcasting and their
• 28:12
  last item just says Spotify playlist and they're going.
• 28:15
  What? Hang on.
• 28:16
  Yeah. So Harry Kane has turned into
• 28:19
  turned music investor. He's invested in a music
• 28:22
  startup, which I didn't see coming.
• 28:25
  You know, he's not retired. He's still banging the goals in.
• 28:27
  Mostly, yeah, But yeah. So it's a company called Seat
• 28:30
  Unique who are they're kind of one of those VIP ticketing
• 28:33
  companies. So if you want to get posh Box
• 28:36
  or hospitality for a big concert.
• 28:40
  So there's currently I actually went looking to sort of get an
• 28:42
  example for you. So they're doing stuff for like
• 28:44
  Oasis and Coldplay and Beyoncé and San Venice and the big
• 28:47
  stadium arena gigs. And if you you can buy a £699
• 28:52
  ticket for Beyoncé and for that you get 3 course meal, be a
• 28:58
  complimentary beer, wine and soft drinks.
• 28:59
  You get a dedicated host and bar stuff and you get a premium
• 29:03
  padded seat which for some people is worth the £699 alone.
• 29:10
  And so yeah, Harry Kane is invested in the company as part
• 29:12
  of this new funding round so that the company's valued at
• 29:14
  more than £100 million. He is the big name in the round.
• 29:18
  He's not the first footballer to invest in it.
• 29:21
  So so how about I can make you guess which is another ex
• 29:24
  England footballer is associated with an investment fund that's
• 29:28
  got a stake in this company, another.
• 29:30
  Ex England footballer. A rugged centre back.
• 29:34
  There you go. I'll give you a.
• 29:36
  Clue. OH, I mean, the image of John
• 29:40
  Terry has just sprung to mind. Exactly that John Terry is.
• 29:44
  It. Yeah, the the investment funds
• 29:46
  associated with him has got a stick in it.
• 29:48
  Also funds associated with Dame Jessica, Dennis Hill and Ben
• 29:50
  Stokes the cricketer. So part of this company's
• 29:53
  playbook, because it sells sports events too, is it gets
• 29:55
  these sports stars in as kind of investors and ambassadors.
• 29:59
  And so Harry Kane is the latest. But yeah, I mean, it's kind of a
• 30:03
  growing trend like like this idea of you often see startups
• 30:06
  raising money when they're kind of before they get to the really
• 30:08
  big fund raising rounds, They're raising from kind of Angel
• 30:11
  investors. So like the early, early
• 30:12
  investors, but also high, they call it high net worth
• 30:15
  individuals, which can mean people who sold startups and got
• 30:18
  loads of money or millionaires. But that is sports stars too,
• 30:21
  and and music stars as well. Like I've written about who is
• 30:25
  it? So Chainsmokers and Metallica
• 30:30
  and Kygo, they're they're all musicians who've got like their
• 30:33
  own investment funds that actually invest in start-ups.
• 30:36
  Oh, really? So, so it's becoming like a
• 30:38
  thing like, you know, if you've got money, if you're a certain
• 30:41
  level of money, whether you're a sports star, music star, you can
• 30:44
  invest in startups and and if it's in your industry, it's
• 30:47
  something you know about. So you know, Harry Kane's And so
• 30:49
  yeah, so it's, I think we're going to see more of this like
• 30:52
  more sports related start-ups will get footballers investing
• 30:55
  in them and more music ones will get musicians.
• 30:56
  But I mean, it's probably. I've just got an image in my
• 31:00
  head now of all the members of Metallica.
• 31:02
  So it's a new version of Dragon's Den where it's just all
• 31:06
  the members of Metallica sat there in the chairs as various
• 31:10
  start up companies come in and try and persuade them to invest
• 31:16
  in whatever piece of fintech they've come up with or whatever
• 31:22
  it may be. Or even better, maybe a chain
• 31:24
  smoker member of Metallica and anybody else who is investing.
• 31:30
  Do you? Know what Metallica's investment
• 31:32
  fund is called? I'm I'm checking this now.
• 31:34
  I've brought it out. Is it there's Black Squirrel
• 31:38
  Partners, Black squirrel. There must be.
• 31:42
  Is that a real, is that a Metallica lyric?
• 31:43
  I wouldn't know, but yeah, black squirrel partners.
• 31:49
  But yeah, so this is this is the thing.
• 31:50
  So I think like Harry Kane, who has, well, there's a company in
• 31:55
  UK that got Robbie Williams an investor.
• 31:56
  Like I think if you're asked to a certain level now you you have
• 31:59
  money to spend it and you either do the Robbie Fowler route of
• 32:02
  buying up half of a town, buying property, or you're going to
• 32:07
  start. So it's kind of in a way buying,
• 32:10
  investing in startups is a new, buying a pub for footballers
• 32:14
  like it's, it's their retirement nest egg.
• 32:16
  And then you can't, you can't drink the profits of a startup.
• 32:19
  So it's even more healthy for you.
• 32:21
  I think that is where we should leave this week's episode.
• 32:26
  Thank you very much for listening.
• 32:28
  As ever we do appreciate it and if you have enjoyed the show, do
• 32:33
  subscribe in your podcast app and give us a review and a
• 32:36
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• 32:38
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• 32:41
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• 32:45
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• 32:49
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• 32:52
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• 32:56
  queries or anything else. If you'd just like to drop us a
• 32:59
  line, get in touch, let us know you're there.
• 33:01
  thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com is our e-mail address.
• 33:05
  thepriceofmusicpodcast@gmail.com. Till next week.
• 33:10
  Take care everybody. Tara.